ESOCS Devotional 5 March 2025: Sanctified By Christ's Offering

ESOCS Devotional 5 March 2025 – Sanctified By Christ’s Offering

MEMORY VERSE:“By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hebrews 10:10 NKJV

TEXT: HEBREWS 10:1–15

For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. ²For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. ³But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. ⁴For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

⁵Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:

“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
But a body You have prepared for Me.
⁶In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
You had no pleasure.
⁷Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—
In the volume of the book it is written of Me—
To do Your will, O God.’ ”

⁸Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law), ⁹then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second. ¹⁰By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

¹¹And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹²But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. ¹⁴For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

¹⁵But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,

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Our text reminds us that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ and therefore, we do not need any other sacrifice to atone for our sins.

The animal sacrifices instituted under the old covenant showed the people that blood was necessary to give atonement for sin. However, it was not the blood of animals that would provide what the people needed. For the people needed someone who, by doing the will of God perfectly, could alone offer the sacrifice necessary to bring about our atonement (vv. 5–7).

The Jewish context in which the author wrote made it quite revolutionary for him to state that the time of animal sacrifices had come to an end. After all, animal sacrifices were prescribed by the Word of God itself and how can we change the requirements of God?

When we look at today’s passage, however, we see that it was the very Word of God that predicted the end of these sacrifices. Verse 8 reminds us that God did not desire the sacrifices performed according to the Law. This does not mean that sacrifices were not necessary, just that from an ultimate perspective, the sacrifices according to the Law were not the sacrifices God really desired.

We know this to be the case from verse 9 where it is said that Christ abolished the animal sacrifices in order to establish God’s will. God’s will refers to Christ’s sacrifice of Himself as the one efficacious sacrifice for sins. Ultimately, the will of God was that a sacrifice be performed — the perfect sacrifice of His Only Son.

As a result of Christ’s obedience to God’s will by the sacrifice of Himself, we have been sanctified (v. 10). God already sees us as holy if we are in Christ; that is, we are holy in His eyes by grace. Though we must work out this holiness by obeying God’s commands, we are set apart even now and will one day manifest this holiness perfectly.

CHALLENGES